All of the windows in Wang Chong's room were shut, even the doors were latched. At this moment, it was as though his room was a separate world.
And Wang Chong was at the center of this 'world'!
"Think, think! What did I just hear? Destiny, destiny…"
Wang Chong sat by the side of his bed with his eyes closed. He tried his best to recall the words of the voice he heard in the main hall. Subconsciously, he rubbed his hands against his knees.
Wang Chong didn't even feel that nervous when he led thousands of troops to conquer the battlefields in his previous life.
But now, Wang Chong felt tense.
"Right, Destiny Struggler! It's Destiny Struggler! …"
Weng! The moment the words 'Destiny Struggler' flashed across Wang Chong's mind, it was as though he had found the key to opening a gate and changes immediately occurred within Wang Chong's mind.
A huge amount of information surged into Wang Chong's mind, and Wang Chong heard that emotionless mechanical voice once more. Just that this time, the content was slightly greater than what he heard previously:
[User has awakened! You have successfully altered the destiny of your clan and received the approval of your clan. Thus, you have been awarded the title 'Destiny Struggler'!]
[Destiny Warrior: Everyone is just a tiny insignificant ant on the web of destiny. The more one struggles, the tighter one is bound by it!]
[Title: Destiny Struggler. Reward: 50 Destiny Energy!]
…
Upon hearing those voice, all kinds of illusions flashed across Wang Chong's eyes. They were all the various matters that had happened after Wang Chong's reincarnation; Admitting his fault before his parents, causing a ruckus at the Vast Crane Pavilion, persuading his father… All of it appeared one after another. Wang Chong felt like an onlooker evaluating his previous actions.
Sssss!
Upon seeing this sight, Wang Chong gasped. His conjecture wasn't wrong, something had really happened to him.
That bizarre voice and the 'Destiny Struggler' clearly weren't normal. No wonder his body felt more nimble after his reincarnation. No wonder he felt practicing Dragon Bone Art was significantly easier than before. No wonder he absorbed the Body Tempering Pill much faster than he had expected…
In that instant, Wang Chong understood that the feeling he felt wasn't an illusion. There was truly some kind of mysterious power within his body.
But why did he never felt it before?
A storm raged in Wang Chong's mind. Thinking back, the moment when the voice appeared was when he received the approval of his big uncle, who usually disliked him.
"…So, does this mysterious power require certain conditions to be activated?"
Wang Chong sat motionlessly by the bed.
Today's events were too shocking to Wang Chong. He needed to ponder over the matter to comprehend what was happening to him.
"User has awakened… Is that referring to me? Since it appeared in me, does it mean that I have become its host? But what did 'Destiny Struggler' mean? Did it appear because my actions has changed the destiny of myself and my clan?"
Countless thoughts flashed through Wang Chong's mind. The three sentences gave him too few information to infer what was going on so Wang Chong could only try to dredge up as much as he could from them.
Furthermore, regardless of how that mysterious voice came about, Wang Chong's intuition told him that it had to do with his reincarnation.
In his previous life, such an incident had never occurred.
All of this started only after his reincarnation.
"…So, is it all because of that shooting star?"
Somehow, that shooting star floated into Wang Chong's thoughts. That was his final sight before his death in his previous life, and it was a mystery which had plagued him since.
Weng!
Just when the thought appeared in Wang Chong's eyes, the sight before him suddenly turned dark and Wang Chong found himself standing within an endless space of emptiness.
The darkness stretched beyond the horizons, and at the very center of this darkness, a slight radiance appeared. Then, it slowly expanded a hundredfold, forming a mountain-like bundle of light.
"It's that shooting star!"
Wang Chong's heart tightened as he recognized that bundle of light.
The bundle of light was the radiance from the shooting star Wang Chong last saw before his death. At the same time, it was the 'culprit' for bringing him over from another space-time continuum on a sweltering summer to this world.
Looking at the brilliance which could match up to a comet, for a moment, Wang Chong was at a loss for words.
After going through so much, Wang Chong had never thought that he would see it again under such a situation.
"Indeed, everything that had happened is related to it!"
Wang Chong muttered as he fell into deep contemplation. He felt complex emotions toward the shooting star. On one hand, it was an object of intense loathe. It was the one who destroyed his very first life by forcefully dragging him into this world.
But similarly, it granted him a new life, giving him a chance to alter his past, make up for the mistakes he had done, and right his regrets.
On this aspect, Wang Chong was extremely grateful to it.
All in all, it was like a mysterious fog to Wang Chong. Visible, but intangible. Yet, at the same time, it seemed to wield some kind of mysterious power. Furthermore, until now, Wang Chong still didn't understand what the shooting star was, why it brought him here, and why it possessed such an incredible power, capable of ripping apart the fabrics of time and space, as well as to resurrect him.
As such thoughts flashed through Wang Chong's mind, he heard another voice in his head.
[Stone of Destiny!]
Weng! It was as though a rock had been thrown onto the surface of calm water and countless ripples were generated, the sight before Wang Chong changed once more. Within the endless darkness, the mountain-sized star suddenly shrunk rapidly as its radiance retracted back within its body.
In just a blink of an eye, the brilliant shooting star disappeared amidst the void. In its place was a fist-sized, ordinary-looking mysterious gemstone. It quietly floated in the space before Wang Chong, emitting powerful time-space pulses.
Intuitively, Wang Chong immediately knew that the gemstone was the 'Stone of Destiny'.
[Destiny will not be manipulated by anyone!]
Words appeared in Wang Chong's mind. At the same moment, beside the 'Destiny Stone', a vague silhouette appeared.
Wang Chong recognized the silhouette. It was him!
[Only those favored by destiny can become the Son of Destiny! However, the Son of Destiny may not necessarily be something enviable. That's because you will never know what kind of price you have to pay for it!]
The cold mechanical voice halted right here. Then, the room grew silent and not even the slightest sound could be heard.
Sitting in his room, Wang Chong's heart pounded furiously, he was unable to calm down no matter what he did. The information in those few short words caused a huge blow to him.
In those words, Wang Chong felt threatened.
"Son of Destiny… That's to say, I'm a Son of Destiny? Since I'm chosen by the Destiny Stone, that means that I have become the Son of Destiny, but what does the price mean? Why did it say that 'You will never know what kind of price you have to pay for it'?"
Wang Chong felt extremely uneasy.
Humans were always apprehensive toward the unknown.
Reincarnating, Wang Chong had always thought that this was a blessing from the heavens. However, he suddenly had a sense of foreboding. Perhaps… This Stone of Destiny wasn't as perfect as he thought it to be!
Sitting by the bed, the words of the Destiny Stone lingered in his mind. He mused over it, trying to find hints within the words to derive more information.
But this time, Wang Chong wasn't able to squeeze anything out from those words.
"Right, Destiny Energy? What does Destiny Energy do?"
Wang Chong suddenly thought and said loudly. After the previous attempts, Wang Chong was starting to understand how to trigger that bizarre voice, or rather, the method of communicating with the mysterious Stone of Destiny.
As long as he asked a correct question, the mysterious Stone of Destiny would reply.
Weng!
The moment Wang Chong finished asking that question, new information surged into his mind. The impassive mechanical voice finally said something else:
[Destiny is a giant boulder while the Son of Destiny is an ant standing before that giant boulder. Any attempts to go against the natural movement of destiny would be hindered and punished by the full might of the world. Only with Destiny Energy can one counteract the punishment. This is the foundation of the existence of the Sons of Destiny!]
As the cold mechanical voice echoed, the space started to tremble. The sight before Wang Chong changed and the room he was standing in previously disappeared without a trace. Suddenly, the sight before Wang Chong extended far and wide.
There was no more magnificent residence or houses, no more capital or royal palace. Even the mountains and rivers had disappeared without a trace. In its place was countless thin white silk webs, stretching out from the horizons of the world. It bound Wang Chong tightly at its center as though an indestructible thread
Wang Chong could feel a strong sense of hostility and rejection from the thread-like webs, as though these threads had a life of their own.
That web and thread slowly shrunk continuously, seemingly crushing Wang Chong into pieces.
Weng!
Upon seeing this sight, all of the goosebumps on Wang Chong's body stood up. He thought that him being able to reincarnate to the fifteen-year-old him due to the blessings of the heavens.
Wang Chong accepted everything that was happening around him easily.
But from the looks of it, that wasn't the case.
Even though the cold mechanical voice hadn't explained such a sight, Wang Chong could tell that the dense thread-like web and white cocoons were the 'Power of the World' mentioned by the Stone of Destiny.
Looking at the omnipresent Power of the World, Wang Chong finally understood.
His reincarnation didn't come without a price. Just like what that voice said, all of it was violating the laws of nature. The destiny of the world had already been fixed, and when one tried to change it, it was equivalent to going against the entire world.
This was also what the Stone of Destiny meant by 'hindered and punished by the full might of the world'.